U.S. Firms, Workers Try to Beat H-1B Visa Lottery System

[ElNono]

The government permits related entities, such as a parent company and its affiliates, to file H-1B petitions for the same foreign worker if each can show a legitimate business need for the individual to fill a position.

“Some companies are being creative, within the boundaries of ambiguous regulations, to maximize their chances of winning the lottery,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration scholar at Cornell Law School.

“The practice is growing and will continue to grow,” said Greg McCall, a Seattle-based immigration attorney. Mr. McCall said a company with four subsidiaries requested that he file four petitions this year for the same worker. “So I did,” he said. “It is a best practice.” One petition was selected, he said.

...

Critics including Daniel Costa, an immigration expert at the Economic Policy Institute, say that of particular concern are Indian outsourcing companies that provide workers through U.S.-based subsidiaries for entry-level positions in the U.S., such as tech support at retailers and banks. Such outsourcing companies are among the top procurers of H-1B visas, according to U.S. government data.
...

Small companies say that the tide of multiple petitions undermines their chances of getting the workers they want. Kent Ivanoff, whose iVinci Health in Boise, Idaho, designs software for the health-care sector, said he first heard about duplicate submissions from an Indian software developer for whom he has tried unsuccessfully to secure a visa in two lotteries. “She told me she knows people who have four or five [related] companies sponsoring their application,” said Mr. Ivanoff, who employs 25 people. “It’s tough to compete with that.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-workers-game-h-1b-visa-lottery-lawyers-say-1433237586

[boutons_deux]

Last Task After Layoff at Disney: Train Foreign Replacements

The employees who kept the data systems humming in the vast Walt Disney (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/disney_walt_company/index.html?inline=nyt-org) fantasy fief did not suspect trouble when they were suddenly summoned to meetings with their boss.

While families rode the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and searched for Nemo on clamobiles in the theme parks, these workers monitored computers in industrial buildings nearby, making sure millions of Walt Disney World (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/d/d_disney_walt_world/index.html?inline=nyt-org)ticket sales, store purchases and hotel reservations went through without a hitch. Some were performing so well that they thought they had been called in for bonuses.

Instead, about 250 Disney employees were told in late October (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-technology-restructuring-20141028-story.html) that they would be laid off. Many of their jobs were transferred to immigrants on temporary visas for highly skilled technical workers, who were brought in by an outsourcing firm based in India. Over the next three months, some Disney employees were required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost.

“I just couldn’t believe they could fly people in to sit at our desks and take over our jobs exactly,” said one former worker, an American in his 40s who remains unemployed since his last day at Disney on Jan. 30 (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-technology-layoffs-20150130-story.html). “It was so humiliating to train somebody else to take over your job. I still can’t grasp it.”

The layoffs at Disney and at other companies, including the Southern California Edison power utility, are raising new questions about how businesses and outsourcing companies are using the temporary visas, known as H-1B, to place immigrants in technology jobs in the United States. These visas are at the center of a fierce debate in Congress over whether they complement American workers or displace them.

According to federal guidelines, the visas are intended for foreigners with advanced science or computer skills to fill discrete positions when American workers with those skills cannot be found. Their use, the guidelines say, should not “adversely affect the wages and working conditions” of Americans. Because of legal loopholes, however, in practice companies do not have to recruit American workers first or guarantee that Americans will not be displaced.

Too often, critics say, the visas are being used to import immigrants to do the work of Americans for less money, with laid-off American workers having to train their replacements.

“The program has created a highly lucrative business model of bringing in cheaper H-1B workers to substitute for Americans,” said Ronil Hira, a professor of public policy at Howard University who studies visa programs and has testified before Congress about H-1B visas (http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Hira%20Testimony.pdf).

A limited number of the visas, 85,000, are granted each year, and they are in hot demand. Technology giants like Microsoft, Facebook and Google repeatedly press for increases in the annual quotas, saying there are not enough Americans with the skills they need.

Many American companies use H-1B visas to bring in small numbers of foreigners for openings demanding specialized skills, according to official reports. But for years most top recipients of the visas have been outsourcing or consulting firms based in India, or their American subsidiaries, which import workers for large contracts to take over entire in-house technology units — and to cut costs. The immigrants are employees of the outsourcing companies.
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In 2013, those firms — including Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL America, the company hired by Disney — were six of the top 10 companies granted H-1Bs, with each one receiving more than one thousand visas.

H-1B immigrants work for less than American tech workers, Professor Hira said at a hearing in March of the Senate Judiciary Committee, because of weaknesses in wage regulations. The savings have been 25 percent to 49 percent less in recent cases, he told lawmakers.

In a letter in April to top federal authorities in charge of immigration, a bipartisan group of senators called for an investigation of recent “H-1B-driven layoffs,” saying “their frequency seems to have increased dramatically in the past year alone.”

Last year, Southern California Edison initiated 540 technology layoffs while hiring two Indian outsourcing firms for much of the work. Three Americans who had lost jobs told Senate lawmakers that many of those being laid off had to teach immigrants to perform their functions.

In a statement, the utility said the layoffs were “a difficult business decision,” part of a plan “to focus on making significant, strategic changes that can benefit our customers.” It noted that some workers hired by the outsourcing firms were American citizens.

Fossil, the fashion watch maker, said it would lay off more than 100 technology employees in Texas this year, transferring the work to Infosys. The company is planning “knowledge sharing” between the laid-off employees and about 25 new Infosys workers, including immigrants, who will take jobs in Dallas. Fossil is outsourcing tech services “to be more current and nimble” and “reduce costs when possible,” it said in a statement.

Among 350 tech workers laid off in 2013 after a merger at Northeast Utilities, an East Coast power company, many had trained H-1B immigrants to do their jobs, several of those workers reported confidentially to lawmakers. They said that as part of their severance packages, they had to sign agreements not to criticize the company publicly.
In Orlando, Disney executives said the layoffs were part of a reorganization of technology operations to focus on producing more innovations. They said the company opened more positions than it eliminated, with a net gain of 70 tech jobs.

“Disney has created almost 30,000 new jobs in the U.S. over the past decade,” said Kim Prunty, a Disney spokeswoman, adding that the company expected its contractors to comply with all immigration laws.

The tech workers laid off were a tiny fraction of Disney’s “cast members,” as the entertainment conglomerate calls its theme park workers, who number 74,000 in the Orlando area. Employees who lost jobs were allowed a three-month transition with résumé coaching to help them seek other positions in the company, Disney executives said. Of those laid off, 120 took new jobs at Disney, and about 40 retired, while about 90 did not find new Disney jobs, executives said.
Photohttp://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/01/us/Visa-lett-alt-image-1/Visa-lett-alt-image-1-articleLarge.jpg

Photohttp://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/01/us/visa-letter-alt-image-2/visa-letter-alt-image-2-articleLarge.jpg

Photohttp://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/01/us/visa-letter-alt-image-3/visa-letter-alt-image-3-articleLarge.jpg
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html?referrer=&_r=0

[boutons_deux]

In a turnabout, Disney ABC TV cancels plans to outsource IT jobs

http://www.itworld.com/article/2934926/it-management/in-a-turnabout-disney-abc-tv-cancels-plans-to-outsource-it-jobs.html?phint=newt%3Ditworld_today&phint=idg_eid%3De9a1bab1fadac3242d97a6dde939315b#t k.ITWNLE_nlt_tonight_2015-06-12

[TDMVPDPOY]

gettin foreign workers in to decrease the costs of labour doesnt make sense, all it does is creates other shit in the economy that doesnt balance out

why cant they just sack the worker and advertise that job at a lower salary? im certain ppl would still apply

[boutons_deux]

gettin foreign workers in to decrease the costs of labour doesnt make sense, all it does is creates other shit in the economy that doesnt balance out

why cant they just sack the worker and advertise that job at a lower salary? im certain ppl would still apply

The trick is not hiring cheaper employees. The trick is firing employees (and their benefits) and hiring cheaper contractors (no benefits) from Asian body shoppers.

[boutons_deux]

Workers Betrayed by Visa Loopholes

It hardly needs saying that immigration policy should not undermine Americans’ jobs, wages or working conditions. The problem is that what some companies want — cheap, exploitable, disposable labor — is exactly what the system can be twisted into giving them.

Former workers at Walt Disney World in Orlando or at Southern California Edison, the power utility, can tell the story. Those two companies recently laid off hundreds of tech employees, who were replaced by temporary workers recruited by outsourcing firms based in India.

These are only two of many troubling episodes involving the H-1B program, which provides up to 85,000 visas a year to foreigners, mainly highly skilled technical workers. The program was created to allow companies to fill gaps in their work force with specialized employees they cannot find in the United States.

But the law has loopholes (http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-20150222-column.html#page=1), and companies here and overseas ruthlessly exploit them. A huge industry has risen to meet labor demand in the information-technology sector, with the imported workers being employees of the outsourcing firms.

On Thursday the Labor Department announced it was investigating two of the largest companies that supply H-1B workers, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, based in India.

Senators including Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, and Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, asked for the inquiry after reports that Southern California Edison turned to Infosys and Tata for H-1B workers even as it was laying off 540 workers, many of whom said they had to train their replacements.

The Times recently reported (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html) a similar story at Disney, which contracted with HCL America, a branch of an Indian outsourcer, and laid off 250 workers. Some workers said they were asked to stay on to train the newcomers who took over their jobs.

A mass influx of foreigners doing the jobs of the workers they displace is clearly not what the law intended. Congress surely did not want to give companies a more efficient means of slashing payroll costs while pushing more people to the curb. But despite common perceptions about the H-1B law, it does not require companies to recruit American workers before looking overseas.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/15/opinion/workers-betrayed-by-visa-loopholes.html

What Congress wanted was not what BigCorp wanted when BigCorp's lobbyists wrote the law

[boutons_deux]

Ruling on OPT program creates major problem for U.S., but is a win for IT workers who brought the lawsuit

A federal judge made a ruling this week that could force tens of thousands of foreign workers, many of whom are employed at tech companies on student visas, to return to their home countries early next year.
H-1B debate




With H-1B visa, diversity doesn't apply (http://www.itworld.com/article/2968356/it-management/with-h-1b-visa-diversity-doesnt-apply.html)
(they're mostly Indians)


This ruling, released Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle in Washington, found that the government erred by not seeking public comment when it extended the 12-month Optional Practical Training (OPT) program to 29 months for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) students. The OPT program allows someone to work on a student visa.

Huvelle could have invalidated the OPT extension immediately but instead gave the government six months, or until to Feb. 12, 2016, to submit the OPT extension rule "for proper notice and comment."

John Miano, the attorney representing the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, which brought the lawsuit, said the ruling is a "big victory for labor" that "cuts off the back door of using administrative action to bypass Congress."

"American workers and the public at large were given no notice that the regulations were even being considered until DHS dropped them fait accompli without notice and comment," said Miano, a programmer who founded the Programmers Guild and later became a lawyer.

The OPT program has proved to be increasingly popular. In 2008, the year the extension was adopted, the U.S. approved 28,500 OPT applications. In 2013, it approved 123,000.

The court's timeline for fixing the OPT program is going to be "very challenging," Macdonald said, because of various government 30 and 60-day notice periods. "I think everyone is getting ready for DHS to push this rule within the six-month period," he said.

"The Administration's abuse of the OPT program is extraordinary. American workers are paying the price daily."

It was the administration of President George W. Bush that pushed through the OPT extension. President Barack Obama's administration supported it, and has extended the definition to STEM to include a broader range of college degrees.

http://www.itworld.com/article/2971082/careers/working-stem-students-may-be-forced-to-leave-us-next-year-says-court.html?phint=newt%3Ditworld_today&phint=idg_eid%3De9a1bab1fadac3242d97a6dde939315b#t k.ITWNLE_nlt_tonight_2015-08-14

[DarrinS]

First good post from boutbot

[DarrinS]

I like how he made the font smaller for "they're mostly Indians"

[boutons_deux]

I like how he made the font smaller for "they're mostly Indians"

formatting typo, fixed, you paranoid freak

[boutons_deux]

Large Companies Game H-1B Visa Program, and Jobs Leave the U.S.

Théo Négri, a young software engineer from France, had come up with so many novel ideas at his job at an Internet start-up in San Francisco that the American entrepreneur who hired him wanted to keep him on.

So he helped Mr. Négri apply for a three-year work visa for foreign professionals with college degrees and specialized skills, mainly in technology and science. With his master’s degree from a French university and advanced computer abilities, Mr. Négri seemed to fit the bill.

But his application for the H-1B visa (http://www.uscis.gov/eir/visa-guide/h-1b-specialty-occupation/understanding-h-1b-requirements) was denied, and he had to leave the United States. Back in France, Mr. Négri used his data skills to figure out why.

The answer was simple: Many of the visas are given out through a lottery, and a small number of giant global outsourcing companies had flooded the system with applications, significantly increasing their chances of success. While he had one application in last year’s lottery and lost, one of the outsourcing companies applied for at least 14,000. The companies were squeezing out American employers like his boss.

Congress set up the H-1B program to help American companies hire foreigners with exceptional skills, to fill open jobs and to help their businesses grow. But the program has been failing many American employers who cannot get visas for foreigners with the special skills they need.

Instead, the outsourcing firms are increasingly dominating the program, federal records show. In recent years, they have obtained many thousands of the visas — which are limited to 85,000 a year — by learning to game the H-1B system without breaking the rules, researchers and lawyers said.

“The H-1B program is critical as a way for employers to fill skill gaps and for really talented people to come to the United States,” said Ronil Hira, a professor at Howard University who studies visa programs. “But the outsourcing companies are squeezing out legitimate users of the program,” he said. “The H-1Bs are actually pushing jobs offshore.”

Those firms have used the visas to bring their employees, mostly from India, for large contracts to take over work at American businesses. And as the share of H-1B visas obtained by outsourcing firms has grown, more Americans say they are beingput out of work (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html), or are seeing their jobs moved overseas (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/toys-r-us-brings-temporary-foreign-workers-to-us-to-move-jobs-overseas.html).

Of the 20 companies that received the most H-1B visas in 2014, 13 were global outsourcing operations, according to an analysis of federal records by Professor Hira.

The top 20 companies took nearly 40 percent of the visas available — about 32,000 — while more than 10,000 other employers received far fewer visas each.

And about half of the applications in 2014 were rejected entirely because the quota had been met.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/us/large-companies-game-h-1b-visa-program-leaving-smaller-ones-in-the-cold.html?_r=0

[rmt]

This is sickening - Rubio is the one that's sponsoring the I-Squared bill that will increase the number of H1-B visas from 65,000 to 195,000 and eliminate the cap on graduate degrees. A pox on Rubio - just another establishment type in the pocket of big corps.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2947092/outsourcing/microsoft-rubio-sessions-and-the-h-1b-ground-war.html

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/08/jeff-sessions-targets-marco-rubio-on-h-1b-visas-says-hes-quashing-americans-dreams/

[Warlord23]

Since corporations are people and money equals free speech in America, nobody should be surprised by this. The only solution is to get money out of politics via a constitutional amendment. Till then, enjoy the best lawmakers that money can buy.

[Othyus Lalanne]

Since corporations are people and money equals free speech in America, nobody should be surprised by this. The only solution is to get money out of politics via a constitutional amendment. Till then, enjoy the best lawmakers that money can buy.

How about get the people to stop acting like dumbasses about their politics. Just because it would be entirely funded by the state does not mean insiders could not rig it.

[Warlord23]

How about get the people to stop acting like dumbasses about their politics. Just because it would be entirely funded by the state does not mean insiders could not rig it.

"Get people to stop acting like dumbasses": what does that even mean? The key issue is that most politicians need to spend at least half their time fundraising rather than solving problems. And when they do get down to policy, they write laws that help their biggest donors. Rubes like you who cheer for your favourite politician get lied to and discarded after the candidate gets voted in. This is an issue where there is consensus across the political divide by the way: a majority of both D and R supporters believe that money should be taken out of politics.

[Othyus Lalanne]

"Get people to stop acting like dumbasses": what does that even mean? The key issue is that most politicians need to spend at least half their time fundraising rather than solving problems. And when they do get down to policy, they write laws that help their biggest donors. Rubes like you who cheer for your favourite politician get lied to and discarded after the candidate gets voted in. This is an issue where there is consensus across the political divide by the way: a majority of both D and R supporters believe that money should be taken out of politics.

So what if they fucking believe that? The majority is automatically right or something? Money cannot be taken out of politics. Politicians would have to fundraise less if the dumbass voters would not pay attention to the damn ads and they would check on the candidate.

[rmt]

So what if they fucking believe that? The majority is automatically right or something? Money cannot be taken out of politics. Politicians would have to fundraise less if the dumbass voters would not pay attention to the damn ads and they would check on the candidate.

To an extent, isn't money (given by big donors) not an issue with Trump and Carson. Trump's only spent 2 million of his own money and Carson is funded by $50 donations (from average Americans). The repub base is fed up with the establishment - outsiders are getting over 50% of the polls.

[rmt]

"Get people to stop acting like dumbasses": what does that even mean? The key issue is that most politicians need to spend at least half their time fundraising rather than solving problems. And when they do get down to policy, they write laws that help their biggest donors. Rubes like you who cheer for your favourite politician get lied to and discarded after the candidate gets voted in. This is an issue where there is consensus across the political divide by the way: a majority of both D and R supporters believe that money should be taken out of politics.

Term limits for everybody including the Supreme Court.

[boutons_deux]

"key issue is that most politicians need to spend at least half their time fundraising rather than solving problems"

most politicians run for office to get (more) wealthy, not to serve selflessly for the good of Americans.

They are all corrupted by BigCorp, esp BigFinance. America is a corporatocracy, with the govt doing the bidding of their BigCorp donors who buy protection/non-enforcement/corporate welfare, not serving their constituents, except on "social issues" like abortion, racism, guns, LGBT, Christian sharia.

America is fucked and unfuckable.

Don't think so? I'm still waiting for anybody here to suggest how to get money, and political money-grubbing whores, out of politics.

[rmt]

"key issue is that most politicians need to spend at least half their time fundraising rather than solving problems"

most politicians run for office to get (more) wealthy, not to serve selflessly for the good of Americans.

They are all corrupted by BigCorp, esp BigFinance. America is a corporatocracy, with the govt doing the bidding of their BigCorp donors who buy protection/non-enforcement/corporate welfare, not serving their constituents, except on "social issues" like abortion, racism, guns, LGBT, Christian sharia.

America is fucked and unfuckable.

Don't think so? I'm still waiting for anybody here to suggest how to get money, and political money-grubbing whores, out of politics.




Do you believe that Trump and Carson are in it for the money? For Trump, he already has his billions and Carson's got his fame - why put up with all this hassle? They could just retire, play golf and enjoy life.

[boutons_deux]

Do you believe that Trump and Carson are in it for the money? For Trump, he already has his billions and Carson's got his fame - why put up with all this hassle? They could just retire, play golf and enjoy life.

Trump doesn't need the money, but he's in to pimp up his Trump brand. He doesn't want to be President, and never will be.

Carson is nothing but a grifter, like pit bull bitch. He doesn't give a shit about politics or America, he's all about look-at-me self-aggrandizement, ego stroking, and pushing his brand, like taking to time off to sell books.

America's rightwingdings vomit these and all the other assholes onto the public stage and you idiots suck them down as credible Presidents.

btw, except for silly Ayn Rand Paul wanting to reduce the MIC, every one of them supports exactly the same America-fucking policies.

[Othyus Lalanne]

To an extent, isn't money (given by big donors) not an issue with Trump and Carson. Trump's only spent 2 million of his own money and Carson is funded by $50 donations (from average Americans). The repub base is fed up with the establishment - outsiders are getting over 50% of the polls.

It's happening, the people are evolving,but this shit could get ugly before it gets better.

[boutons_deux]

It's happening, the people are evolving,but this shit could get ugly before it gets better.

the people don't count. $Bs from BigCorp is all that matters now.

the extreme rightwingnut politicians, all dependent on VRWC $Ms, have been gerrymandered into safe districts, then add in voter suppression in the slave and red states, and you will have for many years to come an obstructionist VRWC fringe able to block ALL progress and trying incessantly to tear down any progress that has been made.

and that's at the Federal level. It's even much worse at the state level. Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Wisconsin are all messed up by pro-business, conservative, privatizing ideology. the 10 poorest states are Republican.

[rmt]

It's happening, the people are evolving,but this shit could get ugly before it gets better.

Have you decided who you'll be voting for? If so, who?

[Warlord23]

So what if they fucking believe that? The majority is automatically right or something? Money cannot be taken out of politics. Politicians would have to fundraise less if the dumbass voters would not pay attention to the damn ads and they would check on the candidate.

Money in politics can be absolutely curtailed. Limit donations to politicians and PACs (e.g. $1000 from an individual or $3000 from a corporation for a single campaign).
Or tax all campaign donations beyond $1000 at 60%. Or institute an NBA luxury tax style system where excessive political donations to one party get split up among other parties proportionate to their vote % from the previous election. Additionally, limit political advertisements to run no earlier than 60 days prior to a primary election day or 90 days prior to general election day. Also institute term limits as rmt said.

You're naive if you think voter awareness will fix this problem. Take the case of Israel and AIPAC. No matter who controls Congress or the Presidency, AIPAC donates millions to key members of both parties. And it's fucking cheap for them, because the US gives about $3 billion per year in military aid to Israel. Whoever you vote for, AIPAC will buy them off for a fraction of the money Israel will get in return. That helps Israel spend more on their welfare state. They get universal health care thanks to the American taxpayer - oh the irony

[Warlord23]

To an extent, isn't money (given by big donors) not an issue with Trump and Carson. Trump's only spent 2 million of his own money and Carson is funded by $50 donations (from average Americans). The repub base is fed up with the establishment - outsiders are getting over 50% of the polls.

I'm sorry to break it to you, but Carson isn't running for President. He's using the donated money mostly on fundraising rather than build a campaign infrastructure. One of his fundraisers is an exec from a direct mail company which is siphoning off the money to send mail to gullible people. He's also squeezing in time for a book tour in the middle of a campaign. A similar scam is being perpetrated by a number of PACs in the conservative entertainment complex. They raise money apparently for conservative causes and spend most of it on salaries or paying a few companies that they have interests in.

Carson, Huckabee, Santorum, Jindal etc are using this campaign to raise cash, get some publicity and land some paid speaking assignments, book deals or TV shows. I'm not sure about Trump yet, he may have got into this as a joke but appears to be a bit more serious now.

[boutons_deux]

"Money in politics can be absolutely curtailed."

corporation are people and money is speech, says the extreme rightwingnut VRWC SCOTUS assholes.

so money ABSOLUTELY CAN'T BE CURTAILED

the VRWC has made curtailing money a violaton of the First Amendment.

[rmt]

I'm sorry to break it to you, but Carson isn't running for President. He's using the donated money mostly on fundraising rather than build a campaign infrastructure. One of his fundraisers is an exec from a direct mail company which is siphoning off the money to send mail to gullible people. He's also squeezing in time for a book tour in the middle of a campaign. A similar scam is being perpetrated by a number of PACs in the conservative entertainment complex. They raise money apparently for conservative causes and spend most of it on salaries or paying a few companies that they have interests in.

Carson, Huckabee, Santorum, Jindal etc are using this campaign to raise cash, get some publicity and land some paid speaking assignments, book deals or TV shows. I'm not sure about Trump yet, he may have got into this as a joke but appears to be a bit more serious now.

So if most of the money is going into fundraising, how does that benefit Carson. This is not the first book he's written and he's done lots of speaking appearances before this. Why go through this hassle at this time in his life? That's one of the things his wife mentioned - that at this stage of their lives (after 30 years of him being on call, etc.), she was looking forward to a quiet, retired life with him but that he feels called to try to do something when he sees the direction of the country (because of their grandchildren). I could see Trump doing it for his ego, but not for Carson.